Columbia Disintegration Causes 'Month-to-Month' Slip at ISS | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-06.23.25

Airborne-NextGen-06.24.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.25.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Thu, Oct 16, 2003

Columbia Disintegration Causes 'Month-to-Month' Slip at ISS

Launch Delays Could Compound, Report Says

Every month that the International Space Station is in "survival mode" is another month that virtually nothing gets done up there, according to a new General Accounting Office report.

Since equipment and additional modules for the station generally can't be carried on the small Russian Soyuz and Progress ships, and since the crew, originally planned to be seven (and realistically has always been three) was reduced to two men after the Columbia breakup, enlargement of the ISS is not possible.

With just two aboard the station and few experiments' delivered and retrieved in the Russian craft, the ISS crew can't do planned science work, either.

The Russians are willing, the report says, to continue, and ramp up, its relief work; but the Russians are not going to develop a new technology to fill the gap; and NASA (and possibly other partners) will be expected to fund the additional expenses that such remedial work will entail.

Possibly worst of all, every month that the shuttle fleet doesn't launch represents a concomitant slip in ISS program projects; and some of the equipment that needs to launch, that is ready to go, sitting at Cape Canaveral (FL) -- the longer it sits, the likelier it will need repairs, preventive maintenance, or recertification.

The GAO also says that the space program could be in really deep trouble, pending the in-depth inspections of the surviving shuttles (Atlantis, Endeavour, Discovery) and additional knowledge gained from the ongoing Columbia investigation. Nobody wants to think what could happen, if the shuttles need to be grounded for repair or redesign -- maybe for another year or more.

FMI: (highlights); (full report)

Advertisement

More News

TikToker Arrested After Landing His C182 in Antarctica

19-Year-Old Pilot Was Attempting to Fly Solo to All Seven Continents On his journey to become the first pilot to land solo on all seven continents, 19-year-old Ethan Guo has hit a >[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Versatile AND Practical - The All-Seeing Aeroprakt A-22 LSA

From 2017 (YouTube Edition): A Quality LSA For Well Under $100k… Aeroprakt unveiled its new LSA at the Deland Sport Aviation Showcase in November. Dennis Long, U.S. Importer>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (06.27.25): Hazardous Weather Information

Hazardous Weather Information Summary of significant meteorological information (SIGMET/WS), convective significant meteorological information (convective SIGMET/WST), urgent pilot>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (06.27.25)

Aero Linx: Historic Aircraft Association (HAA) The Historic Aircraft Association (HAA) was founded in 1979 with the aim of furthering the safe flying of historic aircraft in the UK>[...]

Aero-News: Quote of the Day (06.27.25)

"We would like to remember Liam not just for the way he left this world, but for how he lived in it... Liam was fearless, not necessarily because he wasn't afraid but because he re>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC